1. Technical Field
The present invention, relates to an illumination device that illuminates a liquid crystal light valve and other light modulation devices, and to a projector having the illumination device.
2. Related Art
As an illumination device that is incorporated into a projector, there is known an illumination device that collects light-source light emitted from a light source unit having an LED or the like forward by a lens or the like so as to be incident on an end of a rod integrator, and uniformly illuminates a liquid crystal light valve by illumination light emitted from the other end of the rod integrator (see JP-A-2005-140837).
In such a projector, light-source light emitted from the light source unit can be comparatively efficiently used, but a light flux emitted from the light source unit laterally cannot efficiently enter the rod integrator. Accordingly, a part of light-source light may be wasted.